How to deal with clients in regards to Wordpress-development

Question

I have the impression that my Wordpress-projects seem to function very differently depending on how the client works with me. Some projects are easy - we select a template, the client accepts that we do not want to change much, delivers text and pictures and there we go. The site can be online within a few days.

At present I have a client that sees himself as an easy project. The project is for a building in a caritative segment and is still in its build-stage. So there are no photos from within the building only some from the construction area and I only have some sketches from the rooms.

The texts that I received are not complete and poorly written.

So when I started with the project I selected a hotel page - then the client wanted different colors, different font, larger font and so on until the design was broken...

After some in-between trying of different approaches that also did not work I came back with another template which works a little better now but same issue. I gave the client access to jumpchart.com, but he never entered something. In the end it was me that had to enter everything in it... useless.

I am so frustrated...

Now my question:

How do you deal with clients regarding your Wordpress projects. Do you always collect text, images and logo upfront?

What are further rules that help you making the implementation of that wordpress-template an easy thing? Avoiding that the client has a thousand little wishes "to get the design right"

I think both of us - the client and me - frustrated right now.

How can I avoid this in the future?

Thanks

Answer 1

As the freelancer, you are expected to be the expert. Let's make sure you convey that.

If you know you need X, Y and Z to make it work, then make those prerequisites before you do ANY work. In this case, X is the text, Y are the pictures, and Z is the layout/template. The client needs to know you aren't even going to LOOK at building the site until you have these pieces in place, and that it is their responsibility to provide them.

Optionally, you can refer them to other services to create that content for you.

Next, once I have the information I need to proceed, then I build the site. Spin up a virtual server, install the latest Wordpress, PHP and MariaDB, make sure the DNS records point to the server, and get building.

Once it's built, I charge a monthly maintenance fee that covers typical SysAdmin stuff - updates, backups, disk usage, etc. They also get 1 free revision per month, up to one hour. They get access to online training, and they can use their 1 free hour per month for one-on-one training to manage their content.

The big part here is planning, and communicating. If you get those down pat, then these kinds of clients won't bother you after the first or second contact.